Like previous privacy studies, the Pew survey found an overwhelming share of Internet users?86 percent?are worried about the privacy of their personal data online. For some surfers the solution is to do nothing. Nearly half of those online have not yet provided their real e-mail addresses, names, or other personal info to a Web site. (This group includes mostly people who click away from a Web site when asked for data, but also those who have never been asked, and those who lie.) While this lack of participation does not prevent Web companies from collecting data, it keeps the surfer’s online profile anonymous. The study also found that few consumers use software designed to protect their online privacy.
The only privacy tools users really have are dishonesty and overly complicated technologies. Only five percent of surfers have used a program that cloaks a user’s identity from Web sites.
The Pew study found that 86 percent of Net users want “opt-in” privacy policies that would require companies to win their permission before using personal information. But that runs counter to industry practices. An agreement negotiated between a group of the largest Web advertisers and the Federal Trade Commission generally places the burden on the consumer to ?opt out” of such data collection.
Until online privacy policies change, the Pew study suggests consumers thirst for vengeance. If a company violates its online policy, 94 percent of Net users want its executives punished ? eleven percent even favor jail time.
Summary
The use of online deception tactics such as fake names highlights the compartmentalization that is the basic tool of people who want to control their privacy. Judith Donath, an MIT professor who studies identity and online behavior, says that until Web sites design spaces that are clearly public or private, users will have trouble choosing what information to share and what to hide. She adds that such fundamental decisions about what to share ?shouldn?t be about reading the fine print? of a Web site?s privacy policy, but instead should be as obvious as the difference between staying in the privacy of your own home versus walking down the street. When a user is in ?public? Internet space such as an online store, she suggests, the user would be correct in assuming that her movements are watched. When the user was in ?private? space, he would have the right to expect that nothing about his activities there would be monitored, gathered into a profile, or sold to anyone or any firm unless he authorized it. Just as people act one way in their dens and another way at a party, Internet users want to make sure that the Internet world recognizes nuances about when ?public? and viewable events are occurring as opposed to ?private and sensitive communications.
Internet users may not know all the tricks when it comes to protecting their privacy online, but they know problems when they see them. And if their trust is betrayed, they want vengeance.
The Federal Trade Commission currently lacks the authority to enforce privacy standards on commercial Web sites, unless the content is directed at children. In May of this year, the FTC released a report on privacy online that noted that ?only 20% of the busiest sites? implemented the four widely-accepted fair information practices: 1) notice, displaying a clear and conspicuous privacy policy, 2) choice, allowing consumers to control the dissemination of information they provide to a site, 3) access, opening up the customer?s personal information file for inspection, and 4) security, protecting the information from consumers. The commission maintained that industry self-regulation had fallen short. Even as it agreed to a self-regulation scheme with Internet advertisers, the FTC called on Congress to expand the agency?s enforcement power ?to ensure adequate protection of consumer privacy online.?
In their attitudes, Internet users express considerable fears about a number of problems they might face online. They report, though, that the actual incidence of online problems is not very substantial. Finally, despite those fears, they behave in surprisingly trusting ways in many sensitive online areas. However, those fears cannot be discounted because they do seem to inhibit some groups, especially Internet novices and parents, from participating in some kinds of Internet activities.
Concerns about privacy are notably higher among some groups, especially Internet novices (those who first got online within the past six months), parents, older Americans, and women. In some instances, these fears are associated with lower participation in some online activities, especially commercial and social activities. There is no way to know yet whether these groups will eventually become more comfortable and less fearful in the online world or whether their wariness will permanently limit their use of the Internet until their concerns about protecting personal information are met.
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